what is the best way to force the initialization of the fields on an object, ex

object Config {
    val port = System.getenv("PORT") ?: 8080
}

They're initialised together with the object. However kotlin's objects are lazy

is this considered the proper way of doing it ?

Well not quite. It's the equvivalent of Config(), just makes it globally accessible afterwards

If you need something initialized at a specific time, then lazy singleton (which Kotlin's

object

is) is not the right pattern for you

hmm.. the alternative seems to be to make it a class, then create a top level lateinit Config and

Config = Config()

on startup 🤔

Sounds like the initial idea with extra steps anyways

it feels like i’m missing something obvious

I'd say use dependency injection instead

thanks, will have a look

You can have a look at my sample project for example setup: https://gitlab.com/kotlin-examples/transaction-api

Objects shouldn’t really be used for holding global state like this, because they can’t reliably track with the application lifecycle (by nature of being global). By wanting to have the

object

initialized at a specific time, you’re tying it to the application lifecycle. Dependency Injection is definitely the way to go here, for managing lifecycle-aware “global” objects.

I'm sorry for being thick, but is what you're saying that the config object will live throughout the application lifecycle, and it shouldn't (because that's wasteful use of memory)?